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The FIFA World Cup 2026: Historical Perspective
The FIFA World Cup 2026™ will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup™ but the first edition of football’s greatest showpiece to feature 48 teams and three host countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.The tournament promises to be one of the greatest and most diverse celebrations of all time, with matches hosted in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Qualification
Canada, Mexico, and the United States automatically qualify as hosts. The split of the qualifiers is as follows: AFC (8), CAF (9), CONCACAF (6 - including the three hosts), CONMEBOL (6), OFC (1), UEFA (16).
The above allocation accounts for 46 of the 48 participating teams. A play-off tournament involving six teams will decide the final two FIFA World Cup™ spots. One team from each of the six confederations with the exception of UEFA, plus one additional team from the confederation of the host countries, will participate in the play-off tournament. Two of the six teams will be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams.
World Cup 2026: host countries, cities, dates, teams, tickets, qualifying and more
For the first time in history, the organization of the biggest football tournament on the planet will be divided among three countries. In total, 16 cities will host matches. Most of them (11) are located in the USA: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Boston and New York. The Mexican headquarters will be in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Finally, the Canadian venues are Vancouver and Toronto. Read more about the host nations and cities for the 2026 World Cup.
World Cup 2026 dates
The next World Cup will return to being played in the traditional period, between the months of June and July. The World Cup final date has been set as Sunday 19 July following the FIFA Council meeting in March 2023.
World Cup 2026 format
The FIFA Council also unanimously made the decision to approve the proposed amendment to the World Cup 2026 group stage format from 16 groups of three, to 12 groups of four. The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams from the groups will now progress to the round of 32. Hopefuls will now have to play eight games from group stage through to the final, rather than seven.
#WeAre26 launched to bring the FIFA World Cup 2026™ brand to life